Sonny Simmons

Alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons was born on Sicily Island, Louisiana. At a young age, he moved to Oakland, California with his family, bringing the budding musician into contact with touring musicians like Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker as well as local modernists. By the early '60s, Sonny had moved to LA to record and work with altoist Prince Lasha; in 1963 Simmons moved to New York to play and record with Eric Dolphy, Elvin Jones and other major figures in the new jazz. With his then wife, trumpeter Barbara Donald, Sonny recorded as a leader and in 1970 returned to the West Coast. Family and personal problems kept him out of the music in the '70s and '80s, but he was given the chance of a new career in the '90s. He is currently working with Michael Marcus in the Cosmosamatics and the Millennium Group.

All About Jazz: So you were born in Louisiana, right?

Sonny Simmons: Yeah, that's right. Let me tell you the story from the beginning. My parents and all my other relatives lived on this little backwoods island called Sicily Island, Louisiana. Most of them were musicians; I grew up in the church with my papa, and he was a drummer and a vocalist. My mother was a vocalist in the women's choir. I was born August 4, 1933 and when I was a little boy in church with my papa, he bought me an old squeeze-box accordion, and I used to play that in church - it was as old as the hills. It was a squeeze-box so you just had to pull it back and forth like a loony-tune thing. No keys, nothin'. I had to feel the pressure on a certain distance of pulling and pushing. I learned how to play it in church with different religious hymns at that time; I think I was about six. I was born with music, and I had a natural born talent, so to speak. We lived on this island; my parents built a big farm and we were wealthy, but it was really the white man's farm. We had everything on that farm, and at that time everything was organic - no pesticides, so I grew up in a natural, organic environment with everything on the island and we didn't have to go to any stores to buy anything.

AAJ: How big was this island? Was it big enough to encompass several other families?

SS: It was a small island, and most of the other people on that island during that time were my relatives. My grandmother had this big radio, an International console radio, and I used to have her turn it on and I would listen to music, mostly classical and I would hear a little Duke Ellington and a little Count Basie - that was back in 1939 when the war was raging in Europe. I used to hear a lot of beautiful music, but the most beautiful music I heard on the island was from the birds and the singing cranes and all those beautiful creatures on the island. The whole island sounded like a symphony in the spring and the summer - it was so beautiful, and I think about that to this day how beautiful my childhood was. Music was in my soul, and so that was my background.

AAJ: What precipitated the move to California?

SS: Well my papa was a traveling preacher and the director of the choir; he was a great vocalist and could really sing. He knew that living in the South at that time he wanted the family to move to higher ground and a better life, and he was such a great preacher that he went to California in 1944 and the people liked him so much that this rich black woman, a fortune-teller, had a lot of property and fell in love with his talent. She told him that she would sell him a house to get his family to Oakland, California so he wouldn't have to go back to the South. She sold him a big three-story house, and my parents had four boys (I was the first born) at the time and so we all moved to California. He was a noted preacher; he was famous in certain areas of California at that time, he'd be traveling and preaching, come home and take care of his family.

AAJ: How did you go from the squeeze-box to playing reed instruments? What did you start on and how did you get to playing the alto?

I grew up listening to my father's jazz records and listening to the radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy

I grew up listening to my father's jazz records and listening to the radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy. So music and jazz specifically have been a part of me since I was born. I love and perform in all styles of music from around the world. Improvisation in jazz is what drew me in, and still does as well as other genres that feature improvisation. A group of great musicians expressing themselves as one is the hallmark of great jazz and in fact all great music.